Random Crashing

[Vermiis 0]

Ok, this was probably covered somewhere down the line, but I can't find any previous posts. Here's my situation.

I have OFP Gold Edition with the 1.46 patch installed. Below you'll find some of my information from DXDiag.txt, figured it was easier than typing it all out.

Anyway, while playing any mission, at any point in the game, OFP crashes on me. The first thing that happens is my sound fizzles out and then dies. Sometimes the game still goes, just minus the sound, sometimes it crashes straight to a blue screen, then reboots. Occasionally I can prevent that by quitting the game, though sometimes it makes no difference. This seems to happen most frequently with a lot of action going on, or while near or in vehicles. For example, it seems to really dislike the Shilkas when they fire. When Windows reboots, I usually get the option to send a error report, and when I do, it opens a page, which is also below. I was going to submit the problem to technical support, but it says to include flashpoint.rpt and context.bin. Problem is, I can't find either file on my system, even doing systemwide searches for them. So if anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

The following is error report followed by my system information.

Quote[/b] ]Error Caused by a Device Driver

Thank you for submitting an error report. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with specific information about how to resolve this problem at this time. The information that you and other users submit will be used to investigate this problem.

Analysis

A device driver installed on your system caused the problem, but we cannot determine the precise cause.

Getting Help

Depending on which situation is applicable to you, do one of the following:

* If this problem occurred after you installed a new hardware device on your system, the problem might be caused by the driver for the device. If you know the manufacturer of the device, contact the manufacturer's product support service for assistance.

* Some software, such as firewall and anti-virus software, also installs drivers. If this problem occurred after you installed new software, the software might have installed a driver that caused the problem. If you know the manufacturer of the software, contact the manufacturer's product support service for assistance.

* If you don't know the driver's manufacturer and need help diagnosing and resolving this problem, contact your computer manufacturer's product support service.

* Updated drivers might be available on the Microsoft Windows Update Web site. At Windows Update, you can have your computer scanned and, if there are updated drivers available, Windows Update will offer a selection of drivers that you might be able to use. To learn more about updated drivers that might be available, visit Microsoft Windows Update.

* For information about Microsoft support options, visit Microsoft Product Support Services.

Additional Technical Information

* Troubleshooting STOP 0X00000076 - PROCESS HAS LOCKED PAGES Error Messages in Windows 2000 (Q256010)

* How to Troubleshoot Hardware and Software Driver Problems in Windows XP (Q322205)

------------------

System Information

------------------

Time of this report: 6/13/2004, 16:41:06

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp2.030422-1633)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: n/a

System Model: n/a

BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.0

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 2.40GHz

Memory: 512MB RAM

Page File: 253MB used, 4324MB available

Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS

DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 5.03.0001.0902 32bit Unicode

---------------

Display Devices

---------------

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200

Manufacturer: NVIDIA

Chip type: GeForce FX 5200

DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC

Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0322&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1

Display Memory: 128.0 MB

Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Monitor: Mitsubishi DiamondPoint NXM76LCD (Analog)

Monitor Max Res: 1024,768

Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll

Driver Version: 6.14.0010.5672 (English)

DDI Version: 9 (or higher)

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

Driver Date/Size: 3/24/2004 10:04:00, 4274560 bytes

WHQL Logo'd: Yes

WHQL Date Stamp: n/a

VDD: n/a

Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys

Mini VDD Date: 3/24/2004 10:04:00, 1895648 bytes

Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4062-11CF-9875-0A2000C2CB35}

Vendor ID: 0x10DE

Device ID: 0x0322

SubSys ID: 0x00000000

Revision ID: 0x00A1

Revision ID: 0x00A1

-------------

Sound Devices

-------------

Description: SB Live! Audio [FF80]

Default Sound Playback: Yes

Default Voice Playback: Yes

Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0002&SUBSYS_80641102&REV_0A

Manufacturer ID: 1

Product ID: 100

Type: WDM

Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys

Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0252 (English)

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

WHQL Logo'd: Yes

Date and Size: 7/19/2002 10:47:52, 837548 bytes

Other Files:

Driver Provider: Creative

HW Accel Level: Full

Cap Flags: 0xF5F

Min/Max Sample Rate: 4000, 191999

Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 32, 30

Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 32, 30

HW Memory: 0

Voice Management: Yes

EAX 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes

I3DL2 Listen/Src: No, No

Sensaura ZoomFX: No

Registry: OK

[Vermiis 0]

One thing I forgot to add. This has happened on three other systems as well. All systems have Operating System and soundcard (SB Live) in common. Two ot them are AMD Processors with VIA Chipsets (but they're updated). Two have ATI Radeon 9200SE cards. The other system is a P4 system, but I don't know the specs offhand. It has an ATI Radeon 9700 All In Wonder card in it. I'm leaning towards a problem with the SB Live cards since the sound is the first thing to go, but I dunno what the problem could be, and I have the most updated drivers as far as I'm aware, downloaded them the other day. I'm stuck!

[astat 0]

i've experienced the same problem and am currently in exchange with ofp support at custservice@codemasters.com

they just told me to start the game without sound, in their usual short manner and ignoring half of my questions.

but anyway, i will do what they say for now and hope for the best. besides, there have been several players experiencing this bug.

[astat 0]

game works with sound card disabled, let's see what support comes up next with.

[Vermiis 0]

LOL, what good is disabled sound though? Kinda annoying to play like that. What kinda soundcard do you have? I'm beginning to think there are issues with SB Live cards. I posted this in the codemasters forum as well, and someone replied saying there were issues with those cards, but the forum has been down on my side since yesterday. Ahh well, lemme know if you get a resolution!

[Mister Frag 0]

One more thing: if you have a motherboard with built-in sound (who doesn't these days?), make sure you disable the unused audio device in the BIOS, and uninstall the drivers.

Also check Device Manager for conflicts, or if you have XP, use the Windows XP Help Center (helpctr.exe) to locate device conflicts and troubleshoot problems.

That being said, I used to have a SoundBlaster Live!, and it took me forever to get the thing to be reasonably stable in games. Creative just doesn't know how to write decent device drivers, and the latest aren't necessarily the greatest.

[NoCturnal DrAgoN 0]

I have the same problem too. I have GOTY edition and I've already tried reinstalling it twice and still get the same error. Sometimes I play for a few minutes and then the game crashes to a blue screen saying something about my drivers and updates and then it restarts my computer. I've already updated my video card but I still get the error. My system specs:

Windows XP

Intel Pentium 4 w/ 2.54 GHz

1.00 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX 440

64MB

[Vermiis 0]

No conflicts and onboard is disabled. Which version of the drivers do you use, and where can you get older versions from? I'm still leaning towards sounds card issues, but sometimes on the windows error report, it says display drivers. Odd...

[Placebo 29]

I'm beginning to think there are issues with SB Live cards.

I take it you didn't search? Your thoughts are correct

astat ordinarily what goes on away from these forums is not the concern of these forums, however when a person posts on the Codemasters Opf forum that they have downloaded an illegal image of the game I have no choice but to act, you are post restricted until you provide proof of purchase, I will contact you by PM regarding that.

[Hit_Sqd_Day 0]

Hi all,

well i go for the SB Live problem too, since i experience the same problem in combination with XP and a SB Live card.

Currently took out the SB Live card and useing onboard sound.

That leaded into even more trouble first time switching cause the Hardware acceleration for the sound was still on.

Playing a game cause then :

BAD POOL CALLER -----> Computer restarted itself.

Turned the Hardware acceleration 100% off. Now it works fine, eventhough if you have a lot of diffrent sounds in games eventually the sound gets stuck or sounds scratchy for a sec.

I recommend the Audigy series or similar to that since those cards are working better with XP.

the above mentioned is my personal experience so others might experienced something else=D

regards,

Daywalker

[Mister Frag 0]

No conflicts and onboard is disabled.  Which version of the drivers do you use, and where can you get older versions from?  I'm still leaning towards sounds card issues, but sometimes on the windows error report, it says display drivers.  Odd...

I don't use the SoundBlaster Live! anymore, I switched to an Audigy2 a long time ago, and all sound and stability issues went away. Performance is improved too, the Audigy2 requires fewer CPU cycles to drive.

[Vermiis 0]

I'm beginning to think there are issues with SB Live cards.

I take it you didn't search? Your thoughts are correct

LOL, I tried, but for some reason Mozilla didn't like the forum search so I gave up on it. Besides, I remember your reply in Codemasters (that was you, wasn't it?) saying that SBLive has issues. Guess it's time for a new sound card. I would play with onboard, but it's horrible!

Audigy sounds like a good bet, if it's working for you Frag. Just need the $$$ now, lol.

[newbravado 0]

I had to register just to chime in on this problem. I have played OFP since the beginning, have all the updates and patches up to 1.96

After upgrading to xp and patching to 1.96 I have experienced the Sound Blaster Live, blue screen, crash to desktop error. I even got the latest driver from Creative.

The error gives slightly different messages depending on the way it crashed, sometimes say less_or_equal_not_found or mm_pool_error, or check your video drivers or something along those lines.

It shows up during heavy sound activity. (helicopters, shilkas)I tried monkeying around with all the settings, no good. Snap, crackle and pop. Its just the way Flashpoint interacts with the sound card. I guess its time for an upgrade. People seem to be happy with the Audigy series.

I have a p4 3ghz, 5900fx, 1g ram, sound blater live

[Vermiis 0]

I have Gold Edition, so I don't have thr .96 patch, but yeah, that's exactally what happens to me. Looks like the only solution at the moment is to buy a new soundcard. Joy, and I'm broke, hehe.

[Vermiis 0]

Ok, here we go. Thought I might have fixed it by setting acceleration to basic, it actually worked for a whole mission and a half, woo! But alas, it crashed. But this time I got the error message. Too bad with all my knowledge of computers, I dunno how to put this to good use, maybe someone else can though. Here it goes.

Quote[/b] ]DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Stop: 0x000000D1 (0xF8AC1000, 0x00000002, 0x00000001, 0xF70E2F57)

ctaud2k.sys - Address F70E2F57 base at F70B1000 Datestamp 3d377dd7

There was also the whole "If this is the first time you've seen this, blah, blah, blah..." paragraph in there, but I cut that out. I'm going to post this on both BI and Codemasters as well, just to see if anyone can figure it out. ctaud2k.sys, gotta love SB Live.

Hope it helps.

[NoCturnal DrAgoN 0]

It shows up during heavy sound activity. (helicopters, shilkas)

I've noticed that too. I usually get the blue screen error when I'm firing multiple FFAR's from a chopper or during tank battles. Now I just shoot a few rounds, pause the game, and continue. It seems to work fine. Sometimes when the sound gets distorted, I just go to the menu and turn the hardware acceleration off and on again and the sound will return to normal. Sometimes it takes a couple off and on's with the hardware acceleration.

[joltan 0]

In my experience 1.96 runs rock stable - all crashes & problems I had were caused by device drivers & bad bios settings. Some things that may increase stability on your system:

- update your bios

- don't overclock

- make sure cpu and motherboard temperatures don't get too high

- make sure you have 512mb+ ram

- make sure your PCI cards don't interfere with each other (try different slots)

- lower AGP apperture to 64mb (bios setting)

- deactivate fastwrites (bios setting)

- lower AGP to 4x speed (bios setting)

- make sure ram clock and FSB are identical (bios settings)

- install the latest drivers for your motherboard & sound

- update your Windows with the latest patches

- try the latest gfx drivers - sometimes older versions might be more stable tho.

- scan your system for adware & other crap using AdAware & SpyBot

- start OFP using the -nomap parameter

- make sure you don't have too much crap running in the background.

Sometimes you have hardware where no updated drivers are available, but they still cause problems: remove it. I couldn't use my Audigy LS for quite some time because of this - now that there's an updated driver version out it works flawless.

Also some bugged addons might crash OFP back to desktop: remove those addons.

Note: removing fastwrites and lowering the AGP speed to 4x has practically no negative effect on your gfx speed.

[WarWolf 0]

Dunno if you tried this, but you said you'd played with soundcard acceleration, did that include the acceleration settings within windoze itself, or only the in-game settings?

(start->settings->controlPanel->Sounds&Multimedia)

on mine it's under the audio tab, click playback advanced button, and disable the hardware acceleration to see if zero accel will stop you crashing.

[philcommando 0]

Hey Joltan and warwolf, tks. We need more folks like u to share ur experiences on how ur crashes occured and what steps u took to rectify and got into ofp again, cos when crashes happens, folks just give up and blame it on the 3d game when its more of a settings or device error.

Your checklist would be a good start to help others, better than someone who didnt experience a crash and rectification b4. Hope more guys would share their experiences cos it might help someone someday here.

[Vermiis 0]

Yeah, I've went through that list already joltan ;) but thank you for the reply. I'm also not using 1.96, I have Gold Edition, got it before GOTY came out. I only have 1.4sumthin that I can patch to.

WarWolf, yeah, that's the acceleration I was talking about, I tried it on all settings with no luck at all. Still seems like I'm stuck getting a new soundcard, it's just my luck

I'm going to try a few more things and I'll get back to everyone with my results.

Thanks!

[Vermiis 0]

Ok, it looks like I fixed it for now. I found my origional drivers CD, uninstalled my current drivers and installed the ones from the CD. That didn't work alone, but then I tried disabling hardware acceleration again, and viola! I've been playing without any problems now. Until I get a new soundcard, this will have to do. Thanks for the help!

[darkpeace 0]

Run this:

http://memtest86.com

I think you have dodgy system component somewhere mate

[wolfbane 0]

I have posted about this problem a long time ago in another thread and i can confirm to you that, yes this is definitely a Soundblaster (Live!) vs Flashpoint problem.

Tonight i experienced this very annoying (and potentially dangerous) problem yet again. I have been playing other games (are there other games besides ofp? ) for a while and decided to put my old Soundblaster Live! card back in (had been running on onboard AC´97 sound since i first got problems with ofp and the crappy Live! card) just to get some hardware acceleration. I had almost totally forgotten about the fact that i was running on Soundblaster until a few minutes into a preview session in the ofp editor.. kaablaaam!! .. i got reminded about it. The god ´ol bluescreen reared its ugly head and i got a system reboot..

Lucky me i had no CD in the CD-drive this time around so i didn´t get a messed up Windows that would refuse to boot. Yeah, that´s right, the first time i had this problem (i posted about it in another thread but im to lazy to find it..) windows got totally screwed up and would refuse to boot. When the system got rebooted it somehow tried to boot back to windows from the CD drive and apparently read a shitload of crap (1´s and 0´s was scrolling all over my screen) from the CD i got in the drive right over some important systemfiles.

So now it´s back to my trusty AC´97 onboard sound so i can safely play some ofp again.

[darkpeace 0]

You have installed the Via 4in1 drivers then yeah ?

(Also known at VIA Hyperion drivers)

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=300

The only issues that *should* be encountered with Creative SoundBlaster Live! cards is the old Via PCI latency issue, which the above drivers should fix.

Note: Be sure you have a Via chipset based mainboard before installing.

eg: Asus A7V-133 uses the Via KT133A chipset

To find out what chipset your mainboard uses refer to your mainboard documentation.

Personally, when all hardware is configured correctly, with the correct drivers that is, I've never had a problem with a Creative SoundBlaster Live! card.

Heck, Kudos to them to ensure everyone actually bothers to install their mobo drivers, and not rely on the outdated Via drivers that Windows ships with (with many IDE and PCI related 'bugs')

Regards,

Tabris.DarkPeace

GarageLAN, ACT